-
Musical Instruments
This site contains materials regarding Instruments in our "Music Room", including articles about the instruments as well as instructions for "How to Play" many of them. This is provided to help in becoming familiar with the WHAT, WHY and HOW of a variety of instruments and to encourage development of basic skills for playing each.
Some Music Theory
Some Physics of Musical Instruments
Some Basics in Music Acoustics
School Band Information
---------------------------------
Musical Instruments
Musical Scales
Wind Instruments:
- Whistling and the "Hand Flute" - using your mouth and lips or hand and breath as a "musical instrument"
- Whistle and Slide Whistle - devices for producing a single note
- Tin Whistle - or "Penny Whistle", a simple "Irish flute" that produces all 8 notes of the simple diatonic scale
- Flutophone, Song Flute and Precorder - basic learner instruments in elementary schools
- Recorder - another simple "Flute" style instrument with extended range
- Fife - a transverse flute style instrument with extended range
- Pan Pipes - an instrument found in Mythology
- Shofar - a Horn made from a horn
- Bugle - a non-valved brass wind instrument
- Trumpet and Cornet - these are valved brass wind instruments
- Trombone - a brass wind instrument that uses a "slide" to adjust the pitch
- Flugelhorn - a valved brass wind instrument similar to the Trumpet or Cornet
- Kazoo - an instrument for fun play
- Didgeridoo - an Australian wind pipe
- Ocarina - an Ancient wind instrument
- Melodica - a wind instrument with a piano style keyboard.
- Harmonica - a compact, portable wind instrument Stringed Instruments:
- Monochord - a single string instrument used by the Greek, Pythagoras, and others to understand the musical properties of the stretched string. (Our Dulcimer can be used to perform a similar function.)
- Dulcimer - a Folk stringed instrument
- Lap Harp - a small stringed instrument styled after the Harp
- Guitar - a popular, portable stringed instrument
- Ukulele - a stringed instrument, similar to the Guitar but with only 4 strings.
- Guitalele - a 6-stringed instrument that is a cross between a Guitar and a Ukulele Keyboard Instruments:
- Melodica - a wind instrument with a piano style keyboard.
- Accordion - a hand-held bellows driven wind instrument with a piano style keyboard.
- Piano - the standard 88-key instrument
- Electronic Keyboard - a modern piano-style instrument that doesn't rely on vibrating strings Percussion or Rhythm Instruments: (sound produced by striking or shaking)
- Drums - the most natural of all instruments, especially for young children
- Kalimba - an African instrument sometimes called a "Thumb Piano"
- Glockenspiel - a German instrument similar to a Xylophone
- Musical Spoons - a "percussion" instrument from the kitchen
- Bodhran - The Irish "Frame Drum"
- Idiophones - instruments that produce sounds by vibration of the whole instrument, like "The Frog"
Click on an instrument name to open either an article describing the instrument or a "menu" of items relating to the instrument. The menu items may be: articles (in pdf format); links to WIKIPEDIA articles; links to "WIKIHOW" for instructions on playing or caring for the instrument; or links to other web sites with related information. (The menu may include a small picture of that instrument in our collection. Clicking on the small picture will open a larger version of the picture.) If an article comes from Wikipedia then there will be a "WIKIPEDIA" next to the title in the menu. Clicking on that word will open the actual article in wikipedia, allowing you to follow internal links to additional information and avoiding having to download the PDF file.